


Laika Rainbow

by Akisame8



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Catkind (Doctor Who), Splinx (Doctor Who) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26691973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akisame8/pseuds/Akisame8
Summary: The Sixth Doctor brings a refugee aboard the TARDIS: the Soviet space dog, Laika, who experiences something she has never seen before—colors.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 17





	Laika Rainbow

“Let's try this again, shall we?” he said.

She was still weak when she saw the human-shaped man. She knew that the man was not human because his scent was not right— _different_ , but not threatening. She lifted her head and tried to wag her tail, but even that was too much for her.  
  
Her senses were failing her, but the not-human man gathered her limp body into his robust arms and removed her from the terrible metal box.

She did not understand his words at first, then they reshaped and sounded more familiar. His human-like sounds were calming. He removed the harness which had been placed upon her by the scientists, doing this gently because of the sutures which were still fresh from when the doctors had put her on the metal table. The not-human man told her: “We’ll do something about this. The TARDIS is a very good physician in her own right. Isn’t that true, my old girl?” He directed this comment over his shoulder.   
  
“Old Girl” was someone she could not see. She felt the presence of this other being, someone much bigger than even the man. Old Girl seemed to be all around her, conveying safety and healing. She closed her weary eyes, giving into trust. It was all she had left.   
  
Old Girl and the not-human man were her new protectors. She also heard a third presence, a human female. At least she smelled properly human, not like the man-like creature with his strange scent full of… _time?  
  
_ Was that right? What was _time?_  
  
_Patience_ , said the largest of the three presences, the one called Old Girl, who seemed to be the very room itself. The room hummed and gave her alternating moments of blissful warmth and coolness, bathing her with comforting fragrances. She felt it vibrate again with that concept she did not understand. _Time._  
  
_Time_ was as vast as space (that cold blackness into which she had been shot, trapped within her tight metal box) but it also had scents of its own—millions of overwhelming scents.  
  
_Too much, too much…_  
  
Laika slept and healed.  
  
***

“Now. Time to expel _Sputnik 2_ back into orbit where it will fall to earth and disintegrate as it was meant to do.”  
  
This was the _not-human_ man again. From what Laika could gather of their friendship, he and the human woman liked to bark at each other a lot. It was their racket that woke her up.  
  
“Doctor, she needs a proper bed and not a pile of your old clothes!”  
  
“Peri, she needs to learn and become accustomed to my scent. It is imperative that she feels at ease with me. I am quite a complex being to one with such a sophisticated olfactory system!”  
  
“Not to mention, you’re not easy on the ears as well. Keep your voice down while you’re bragging. She’s still trying to sleep and recover!”  
  
“Are you calling me _loud?_ I'll have you know—"  
  
Perhaps later, it might be fun to bark along with them. Her second name, _Laika_ , meant “barker” after all.   
_  
Peri. Doctor. I am called Laika.  
  
_ She made a tentative noise in her throat, prepared to introduce herself. Then she opened her eyes and saw the cat. _  
_  
It stared back at her with unblinking, gleaming eyes.  
  
_A challenge then?_ Laika growled. _So be it!_  
  
The new, unexpected creature had startled her so much, she rose to her feet—and then discovered she had been entangled in some sort of lengthy human garment. She shook herself loose of it, then inspected the comfortable pile of clothing in which she had been resting. It smelled just like the Doctor. (Time, time, _time._ What was _time?)_ When she had unraveled herself from the long wooly scarf, she observed it more closely, giving it an industrious sniff.  
_  
Oh! This is new!_   
  
She became distracted and almost forgot about the cat, riveted by what she saw within the scarf. There were bands of different kinds of _brightnesses_ in the scarf: angry brightness, sunny brightness. There was some darkness there too— deep and frightening and as shadowy as space.  
  
And then, abruptly, she remembered that the cat was still there.  
  
Feeling foolish at letting her guard down around a potential enemy, she spun and barked. If this had been a _real_ cat, the kind that usually annoyed her, it would have bristled and inflated its fur—but this feline was abnormal. It had no fur at all. Or skin. Or whiskers. It did not react to her challenge.  
  
Laika’s frustrated barks increased in volume, as did the Doctor’s booming voice.  
  
_“Splinx!”_ thundered the Doctor. “Leave her alone!”  
  
Was the Doctor shouting at her? Laika lowered herself submissively. Was she being a Bad Dog? No—she realized that the Doctor was actually shouting at the cat. _Good!_ Splinx was the name of the _not-cat_ , and Splinx was being a _Bad Not-Cat._  
  
The not-cat did not even smell like a proper cat, just as the Doctor did not smell like a human. Only the woman called Peri had the correct scent for her species, which was a familiar Earthly fragrance which gave Laika comfort, made her feel as if she were still with her scientists. But where were her scientists now? Were they in another room, waiting to put her back in the metal box again?  
  
_Please don’t put me in the metal box again, I’ll be a Good Dog._  
  
Where was the metal box now? She began to shake. The _not-cat_ just sat there and stared at her, as defiant and impolite as any other feline she had ever met.   
  
Behind the annoying creature, she saw an open door with a flashing light over it. Beyond this door was not another room or the outside world, but rather a terrifying blackness. _Space._ And in this darkness was a slowly spinning pale shape, floating in the void.  
  
The metal box.  
  
She began to whimper again. _I don't want to go in there again. Don't put me back in there._  
  
“Now, now. We’re sending that dastardly primitive thing far away. It’s served its inelegant purpose. But _you_ —you are a brave little girl, _Kudryavka_ **.** ”  
  
Her ears perked up at the use of her very first name. The scientists had called her this before they had started calling her Laika. She looked at the Doctor with new wonder and her tail gave an uncertain wag.  
  
There was a groaning sound as the metal box, the former Soviet capsule called _Sputnik 2_ , was blocked from her sight by the closing door. The empty, terrifying darkness of space was also shut away from her and she would never see it again. With it out of her sight, her body finally relaxed.  
  
Now her curiosity took over. With tentative steps, she began to walk past the glaring not-cat and approached the circular structure in the center of this new room, wanting to sniff and study it. The room itself hummed back at her, tranquil. The soothing scent of pheromones told her she was in no danger. This room was as alive as she was, but how could that be?   
  
It was another kind of box and a room at once. It smelled of _time._ It was Old Girl.  
  
The not-cat approached her now and it smelled of metal and sparks. Its eyes blazed with something new, something different, something she had never known had existed before. It made her think of fire, and heat and danger. One of the bands of brightness on the scarf had matched the angry glow of this false feline’s eyes.  
  
She barked again at this new experience. She bowed to the not-cat, also testing its capacity for play. Neither was effective in provoking the irritating gargoyle, which continued to stare, unperturbed.  
  
Old Girl spoke gently, patiently, into her mind:  
  
_It’s called “red.” It’s a color that you’ve never seen before.  
_  
_Red._ She growled at the metal cat with the glowing, bright _—red_ —eyes.  
  
“Splinx!” shouted the Doctor again. “Oh, leave poor Laika alone now. I don’t know what her opinion of cats is, but I’m positive she’s never met a robot cat before. Though I do think she might have liked K-9, however...”  
  
The metal cat made a low, dismissive snarl and strutted away with a rhythmic creaking and clanking gait. _Not very quiet_ _for a cat, now are you? Not a very good cat at all,_ thought Laika in triumph. _You’re an_ _imposter!_  
  
“Splinx really needs some oiling in her joints,” remarked the woman named Peri. “I’m still astonished at how she swallowed that capsule whole and spit it back out into space, like a big metal hairball.”  
  
“It’s useful to have a dimensionally transcendental carrying vessel handy. Even better that she is cat-shaped. However, like most cats, I can only find Splinx when she _wants_ to be found,” sighed the Doctor.  
  
“Why did you program her to be so cat-like then?”  
  
The Doctor tapped his lapel and the cat-shaped pin there. “Do you really need to ask?” he grinned, then clapped his hands together, cheerfully. “But it’s a canine who needs our attention now, Peri!”  
  
When the Doctor stood before Laika in all his glory—large and startling and dazzling, _so bright!—_ she froze in place, entranced, as if compelled to look at the sun. The Doctor was covered head to foot in… _colors._  
  
The gentle, encouraging voice of Old Girl came from all around her again.   
  
_Colors_ , the TARDIS told her. _You’ll get used to them._  
  
The Doctor was luminous. He was also drenched with the smell of _time_. She had no names for all these new kinds of brightnesses that she saw within the Doctor’s clothes. The TARDIS helpfully identified them for her.  
  
_Yellow_ —she thought again of the sun and not being able to look at it because it would hurt. _Red_ was the angry, startling, hot color, the color of the robot cat’s eyes. _Orange_ reminded her of food, as well as fire. _Green_ was cool and alive, like rolling in grass. _Blue_ was cold like water, clear like the sky when the sun was out and shining over frozen Moscow. _Purple_ was all mixed up, cool and hot together, and it confused her so much that she did not think she liked purple at all.  
  
She tried to sniff at all the varying degrees of luminosity, but colors were empty and had no scent. Did they have taste, then? She tried to lick at one of the darker colors on the Doctor’s trousers which seemed safer for its lack of intensity. This one, she knew, was called _blue_.  
  
The Doctor was laughing. “The TARDIS may have healed her up a little _too_ much. She can see colors now and she doesn't know what to make of me.” He knelt before Laika, politely allowing her to sniff at his hands before he began to rub at her ears, which made her grin.  
  
“I’m sure your outfit will make her want to go color blind again,” said Peri. “Poor sweetheart. To wake up to that chaotic excuse for a coat.”  
  
The Doctor gave an exasperated huff. “First of all, it’s a misconception that canines are completely color blind. Most Earth dogs can see a range between blue and yellow with a variety of grays and browns in between. Secondly, I’ll have you know that there are colors in my clothes that even _your_ human eyes cannot detect, Peri. There is a color in my coat only the Zevarian people can see, which they call _zowt_. And the Tetraga people have _ten_ primary colors as opposed to your Earthly three, all of which I have tried to incorporate into another splendid ensemble which I shall wear tomorrow. However, _you_ will fail to see its resplendence due to your limited—and shall we say— gauche human vision.”  
  
“You mean, my human sense of good taste. Whatever, Doctor,” sighed Peri. “I still think poor Laika should have started with something that wasn't an overload on her senses."  
  
“Humans," the Doctor muttered. "Am I right, my dear Laika?” He smiled and rubbed her ears again with more vigor. It felt so good that her tongue rolled out in happiness. When the Doctor said, “ _Zdravstvuyte,_ _dobro pozhalovat’,”_ she perked her ears up at the familiar sounds. When Peri looked puzzled, the Doctor said, “Just welcoming her in her native Russian. Though I daresay, the TARDIS is translating for us nicely already.”  
  
“I was wondering, Doctor, if the TARDIS can translate Russian, can it also translate… _dog?”_  
  
“Dogs communicate more than just verbally, with body language as well as scent. The way you can see a rainbow of colors, Laika can experience a bouquet of scents.”  
  
_I can smell time and space now_ , thought Laika. _But I still can’t smell colors._  
  
Now that Laika understood this whole new sensation, seeing colors was indeed like scent for the eyes. And the Doctor wore a coat of so many dazzling and overwhelming colors, Laika found it hard to look away. She stared at it with the the intensity—and impoliteness—that Splinx the cat had stared at her. The Doctor was a whole new universe unto himself.  
  
Now Peri was beside her, stroking her fur. “Look away, Laika, or you’ll go blind,” she said. Then her hands found the surgery scars in Laika’s back. They did not hurt when Peri touched them by accident, but the woman pulled her hands away and gasped. “Doctor, what did they do to her?”  
  
“They implanted medical cables that would be attached to electrodes in order to measure her life signs in space,” said the Doctor.  
  
“Barbaric,” Peri gasped.  
  
“Science,” the Doctor sighed, “at the cost of a non-human life. So many non-humans were sacrificed for science before her, and still many more afterwards. Paradoxically, she _was_ loved by her scientists and they had felt this sacrifice was necessary. And yet, it still broke their hearts, as cruel as it was.”  
  
Laika looked up at the Doctor, then at Peri. Her tail thumped the floor. _Can I stay here? Can I stay with you?  
_  
“But we rescued her in the nick of time, Doctor. The Soviets— _all_ of the people on Earth—won’t even know this. They’ll think she died in the capsule. What’s next for her, Doctor?”  
  
The Doctor gave Laika a soft smile. “We’ll give her what every dog wants, I think. Companionship.”  
  
***  
  
“That’s a nice new pin,” the cat woman observed, fingering the Doctor’s lapel with a precise claw. “I have yet to see a blue feline inhabitant of _any_ world.”  
  
"Blue, to match the TARDIS," boasted the Doctor. Old Girl, the Doctor’s blue box, was a distance away, settled on a nearby hillock. "Do you like my new Tetragan coat, Sister? It features all ten primary colors!” He opened his coat and displayed it like the wings of a bird in mating season. Both Sister Ovi, the Catkind woman, and Peri gave him blank looks. _  
_ “  
“Right. This magnificence is wasted on beings of such limited color perception,” sighed the Doctor.  
  
“Thankfully,” whispered Sister Ovi to Peri, who snickered.  
  
The Doctor huffed in disdain. “ _Et tu,_ Sister Ovi? _Et tu?”_  
  
Blue-green was the color of Sister Ovi’s eyes. Laika was uncertain whether she could trust this new being who was neither cat nor human, and yet both _._ She was dressed in flowing white robes and a head-covering, but she had a feline face which smiled as warmly as any of the humans Laika had ever known, dispelling her suspicion. At least _this_ one was not a rude robot pretending to be a cat.

“And who have we here?” the Catkind woman asked. Being well-versed in dog etiquette, she also allowed Laika’s investigative sniffing.   
  
“She was once called Kudryavka, but she is known on her home world as Laika. But I imagine that she might choose a new name for herself now, if that is what she wishes.”  
  
Laika wagged her tail at her name. She liked _all_ of her names.

She looked about at the myriad creatures roaming the grasslands and fields, chasing one another, bounding and barking, croaking and yowling and screeching—a cacophony of species at play. There were animals of all sizes that Laika recognized as fellow canines. One was of monstrous proportions, a bulldog as big as an Earth car, who seemed only to enjoy lying contented in the tall grass with his nose in the air and tongue extended. There were other creatures with impossibly long necks and faces more like rodents; they walked on legs like stilts that ended in paddle-like claws. A foxlike animal with spiky fur made a buzzing sound as it ran on six legs past Laika, chasing a rather ordinary-looking terrier. Laika sensed no hostility from any of these more bizarre-looking beasts. She was intrigued.  
  
There were low structures with ramps and hills with perfectly round tunnel entrances, inviting the creatures with shorter legs to investigate. There were rocky ponds ending in cascades where some of the animals splashed and swam. Laika observed other Catkind females carrying out food and toys.   
  
“Doctor, what is this place?” asked Peri.  
  
“An interplanetary animal sanctuary that the Catkind have been maintaining. All of these animals here have been rescued from dire situations from many worlds and are cared for here for the rest of their lives.”

Laika wanted to join this congregation but first implored the Doctor for permission, as a good dog should.  
  
“Of course!” boomed the Doctor. “This is much better than any enclosed space, even one as dimensionally transcendental as the TARDIS. Go forth, my lady!”  
  
He bent down before her, to ruffle her ears the way she liked. Laika remembered the scientists telling her goodbye, kissing her before placing her inside _Sputnik_. However, all about her was the sanctuary of open air and no more metal box to hurl her into space again. In a softer voice than she had ever heard him use before, the Doctor told her, “This is your domain now, comrade. It can be your home for as long as you wish. Be a good, good girl, _Kudryavka_. _Moya dorogaya ledi_. I will come back and visit.”  
  
Lastly, Peri came to her and kissed her on her snout. Laika licked the tears from the human female’s face. “So much better,” Peri grinned. “Much, _much_ better.”  
  
Laika took a few paces forward, intending to run to the other animals, but stopped, once more uncertain, looking back at the Doctor and Peri.  
  
**“** _Dasvidaniya,_ dear Laika,” said the Doctor.  
  
And she knew then that it was finally time.

The sky was a smooth powdery plum; a cool white sun sank closer to the amber horizon. Some of the animals, despite being of vastly different species and quite alien to one another, walked side by side in companionship. Others, like the car-sized monster dog, preferred their own company and curled up to sleep in the soft grasses. Still other animals that looked canine to Laika had strange scales or feathers; one even had translucent wings that beat in time to its twin tails. When she recognized fur, she saw that it came in all shades—variations of black, red, brown; even yellow with green stripes. Laika was then approached by a blue spitz-like dog with a lush mane of that color she distrusted— _purple._ This new dog seemed friendly enough and expressed an interest in playing.  
  
_Well, perhaps purple was not such a bad color after all._  
  
Scents. Colors. Sounds. So much, so _much,_ Laika thought. She bowed to the other dog.   
  
The purple-maned dog greeted her posture in turn. Despite their alien differences, they both recognized the universal symbol of canine play. The other dog's bark was a bit weird, however, reverberating as if it were in a tunnel. Running together, they traversed the grassy field past the monster dog, past the small rocky waterfalls. The buzzing six-legged fox joined in their fun. The pearly star that served as this world’s sun sank lower in the amethyst sky, and all smelled of wonder and adventure. Laika’s paws were firmly on the ground— except when she jumped into the air, never high enough to achieve space, no, not ever again.  
  
Old Girl made a groaning sound from the hillock and Laika stood still for only a moment to watch her rescuer vanish into the air as if it had never been there at all. She caught a whiff of the perplexing scent of _time_ again—and knew now that she had all of it in the world.

"I told you I would come back and visit, Laika!"  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I bet that you didn't know that the Sixth Doctor had a robot cat named Splinx. You can find out more about her  
> [here.](https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Splinx)
> 
> My sketchbook drawings were added just recently. I thought people might be curious to see them. 😄


End file.
